1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an air discharging apparatus which discharges pressurized air, and to an image forming apparatus including the air discharging apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-157179
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-003277
There is a known air supply apparatus or an air supply system for supplying pressurized air, which is used in various industrial apparatuses, production equipment, and the like. FIG. 34 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional air supply system. The system shown in FIG. 34 includes a compressor 601, an air tank 602, an electromagnetic valve 603, and an air nozzle 604. Although not shown here, a driving source for driving the compressor, a pressure sensor for controlling pressure, and the like are also required.
A conventional air supply apparatus (air supply system) constituted as described above has been unavoidably large in size. Moreover, since it takes time to compress air by the compressor (for example, about one minute) to obtain a high pressure air, the high pressure air cannot be used right after the air supply apparatus is started. Further, a large number of whole components such as the electromagnetic valve are required, which leads to a very high cost. Furthermore, the compressor is noisy when operating, and energy saving is difficult since the air supply apparatus with a large configuration consumes a large amount of power. Due to these problems, applications of the conventional air supply apparatus have been limited to commercial uses such as industrial apparatuses and production equipment.
In the field of image forming apparatuses, there is an image forming apparatus that uses air to separate or transfer paper in a paper feed unit or separate (peel off) paper in a fixing unit (for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). As described above, however, a conventional air supply apparatus (air supply system) has been large in size. Thus, an image forming apparatus including the air supply apparatus has been limited to a large commercial printing apparatus operated by a professional operator, and the like. It has been difficult to employ functions of air separation, air transfer, and the like in a multifunction peripheral, a printer, and the like for uses in a general office and the like.
It is not difficult to downsize only an air pump, however, a small size and low cost air discharging apparatus, which is capable of increasing an air pressure to a required pressure and discharging the pressurized air at a predetermined timing, has not been realized yet.